Mad Tavern
18101 Preston Rd. Ste 102
Dallas, TX 75252
Walking in, it was dark and the decor was inconsistent and mediocre. It's like they wanted to do the Alice in Wonderland theme, but only did it partially. No one was there to greet me so I found my friends and sat down. There were only 3 of us there, the rest of our party was running late. But the restaurant was pretty empty so it wasn't a big deal. We waited and waited and no one ever came to ask us if we wanted something to drink or even say hi.... Not a good sign.
I finally see the waitress and flag her down. She didn't introduce herself or ask us what we wanted. All she said was "yes?" Um... I think we need some waters. And my friend ordered a beer. I proceeded to ask her a few questions about the menu items. She either hadn't ever seen or tried any of the items, so she couldn't really give me any helpful information. Uh..ok...
Anyways, we waited around some more until a few more people showed up. By then I was starving so we decided to order first. At this point, we haven't gotten the beer or waters yet...and it's about half an hour into being there. Flagged down the waitress again (who seems to be the only one working in the restaurant, but it's not even busy...only 4 other tables at best so it's not like she's swamped...). Again, not friendly at all, just took the orders and left. I asked her to leave the menus for other people that are coming, but she walked away so fast she didn't even pay attention to me. I managed to hold on to one menu.
The rest of the party showed up after we ordered. They were never greeted by the waitress or anyone else, so we were never able to get more menus. 4 people had to share one menu. I told them they better decide what they want to eat and order ASAP because it's hard to get their attention! The service was ridiculously slow and attention was nonexistent. I have to add that since we got there, the table next to us with an older Caucasian couple 1) Got wine, 2) got their food, 3) got waters, 4) the husband got his beer. Do I see some bias here?!??!?
We finally got our waters. Another employee brought out 3 waters for 5 people. We didn't get any more. My friends that came later waited, and waited, and waited. They couldn't even get the waitress's attention to order because she never looked our way. Finally the manager, I think, walked by and asked how we're doing. I said... "We've been waiting for a long time and they still need to order." He proceeded to say that 2 of their waiters didn't show up and the only girl working was brand new so he took the orders himself. Yea, ok...I understand if you are new, we can cut you some slack. But this is the most nonchalant waitress EVER! She strolls around with absolutely NO urgency! Being the only one working, you would think she would pick up the pace a bit. She still takes her sweet time, chats with people (not us of course...we weren't worth her time), takes short breaks or watever the heck she's doing. Don't even get me started on the "I don't give a sh*t attitude" she was projecting. WTF!!! We were getting really annoyed and pissed off at this point.
Oh, yea, when the 2nd group finally ordered the rest of us had already finished our food! This was about 1.5 hours into the meal already. No speedy meal here that's for sure! The chicken platter was dry but flavors were ok. The pork chops were tiny, bland and severely overcooked.
The portions were all pretty small for the prices. Some of the other dishes were not bad, but I'm not giving them positive promotion in any way so I'm not going to talk about them. The longer we sat there, the more angry we got. Half of us had finished our food. The other half didn't have their beers or food yet. It took at least 40 minutes and multiple tries to get the waitress's attention before they got their beers. How long does it take to pour a freaking beer? If you would stop chatting and actually do your job, they would've gotten their beers in less than 2 minutes.
Finally, we decided the rest of the group should just cancel their orders and leave (about 2 hours into dinner now...). My friend waved for a long time and had to get up and walk to the bar to tell them (because they never looked our way to see us waving), but then they said it's almost ready. Sigh. We decided to stay. The food came out. It was meh. One guy's chicken was black. It was obviously burnt and really dry. We told him not to eat it and waved the waitress over. Told her we wanted to send it back. No apologies or anything...all she said was "for what reason?" UM. Open your eyes and look at the piece of blackness!!!! Do we need to say more?
It was absolutely ridiculous. The worst service any of us have ever encountered. Not one greeting or apology in the entire dinner service. Or if you can even call it "service!"
During our meal, one customer at the bar also got angry with their lack of service and started raising his voice. "Where's my shot?" he shouted several times. There was zero response from the waitress OR manager who were just standing at the other end of the bar, chatting.... Customer: "Can I get my money back??" Still zero response. Finally, he gave up and said "just give me the tab" and pulled out his money. Immediately the manager rings him up. SERIOUSLY?!?! I don't think the manager apologized to him at all for the wait, and I don't believe the guy ever got his shot. I feel your pain mister...
I can go on and on about every little thing the restaurant DIDN'T do but I don't think I want to write any more on the matter. I'm getting pissed just thinking back on the experience! Needless to say, we didn't tip. Because in order to earn a tip, you would have to actually serve your customers. And it really is a shame, because aside from the dry chicken and pork chops, the other dishes were actually quite good.
But I will work my hardest to tell everyone I know NEVER TO GO THERE!
I've never given anything less than a half cookie rating. But I think this place deserves a grade in the negatives. NEGATIVE INFINITY maybe?? No one deserves the crap treatment we were given at any establishment.
STAY AWAY. Consider yourself warned!
~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
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